The Honorable Arlen Specter

The Honorable Arlen Specter, senior United States senator from Pennsylvania, first rose to national prominence in 1964 when, as junior counsel to the Warren Commission, he authored the controversial "single bullet theory," which supported the charge that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by a lone gunman. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and an editor on the Yale Law School Journal, he was the first Republican elected to public office in Philadelphia in more than a decade when he later became district attorney. Based upon his experience as a prosecutor, he wrote the Armed Career Criminal Act, which has been praised for long prison terms for recidivists, and the Terrorist Prosecution Act, which authorizes criminal actions in U.S. courts for assaulting, maiming or murdering Americans anywhere in the world. As chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee, he has led in increasing funding for education by more than 130 percent and in doubling the budget for the National Institutes of Health, which has made major advances in curing or delaying the onset of many diseases. While chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee in the 104th Congress, he authored the bill creating the inspector general of the Central Intelligence Agency, the only reform legislation to emerge from the Iran-Contra affair. As chairman of the Veterans Committee, he also has pushed for just treatment for veterans. Due to become chairman of the Judiciary Committee in the next Congress, he is only two Republican seats away from chairing the full Appropriations Committee. A frequent visitor to all of Pennsylvania's 67 counties, he has been instrumental in promoting the state’s interests in agriculture, high-tech, steel, coal, tourism, mass transit, highways and military installations.